The present invention relates to a hinge for hanging a door on the carcase of a piece of furniture, having a door-related part which can be fastened to the door and a carcase-related part which is coupled by a linkage mechanism to the door-related part and removably fastened on a mounting plate which can be fastened to the carcase and a supporting arm straddling the mounting plate with an inverted U-shaped cross section, which is releasably joined by a catch mechanism to the mounting plate and has in each bottom edge of its lateral flanges, in their front end portion nearer the door, open-mouthed, hook-like hanging notches which can be hooked on associated corner portions in the area of the mounting plate nearer the door, while at the carcase-interior end of the supporting arm remote from the door two resiliently flexible tongues each with a hook are formed, which in the intended joining position are in form-fitting engagement each with a notch at the carcase-interior end portion of the mounting plate, the hooks and the notches, however, being able to be brought out of engagement by contrary bending of the tongues together parallel to the supporting wall surface, and each tongue has a handle accessible in the locked position of the supporting arm on the mounting plate for exerting a pressure directed one against the other parallel to the supporting wall surface.
In the hinges thus configured (German Patent Disclosure Document 38 20 338) the supporting arm of the hinge can simply and quickly be snapped onto the mounting plate and unsnapped therefrom without the need for difficult manipulation with a screwdriver or other installation tool. By the use of two resilient tongues which have to be squeezed together in a plane at right angles to the direction of the removal of the supporting arm from the mounting plate in order to unsnap the supporting arm, any unintentional unsnapping is as good as impossible. On the other hand, one-handed operation of the handles by squeezing between two fingers of one hand and then swinging the supporting arm away with the same hand is possible without fumbling. In other words, the known hinge of simple construction combines simplicity of operation with great security against unintentional unsnapping of the supporting arm from the mounting plate. It is true that the known hinge is intended for use on cabinets in which the mounting plate holding the supporting arm of the hinge is fastened directly on the inside surface of the cabinet side-wall. That is, the mounting plate and the supporting arm to be snapped onto it are subject to virtually no limitation of their length.
These hinges, however, are not suitable for cabinets in which the front of the cabinet on which the doors are to be mounted is narrowed by a face frame around the doorway to less than the actual inside width of the cabinet. The doors whose inside surface lies against the outer surface of the stiles projecting from the carcase walls and forming the frame must then be hung on these stiles, and hinges of different configuration have been developed for this purpose. Modern link hinges of the kind used in cabinets without face frames cannot be used in the application here involved, because only the narrow edge of the stiles is available for holding the mounting plate, so that a conventional mounting plate and the corresponding supporting arm would protrude into the interior of the cabinet. This would result not only in a restriction of the lateral cabinet space but also in the danger that objects might catch on the projecting hinge parts when they are removed from the cabinet. The supporting arm and the mounting plate of a multiple-link hinge intended for cabinets with face frames must therefore be made as short and compact as possible. This, however, complicates the use of the catch mechanism of the known hinge described above, in which the resilient tongues are punched from the material of the supporting arm flanges and extend parallel to the surface of the mounting plate on the cabinet side wall, so that any shortening of the supporting arm and mounting plate is difficult to incorporate into the design.
Consequently the invention is addressed to the problem of creating a hinge for the above-described cabinets with face frames, whose supporting arm and mounting plate have the required small dimensions to avoid protruding substantially into the cabinet interior from the frame, but in which a catch mechanism is achieved that is comparable with the known hinge as regards simplicity and reliability of operation, and permits the simple and quick hanging and removal of doors from a cabinet.